China plans curbs on online piracy

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China will soon enact new regulations aimed at curbing online
piracy of copyrighted material that will hold websites responsible
for stolen material, state media reported today.

The "Administrative Measures on Internet Copyright Protection"
are due by the end of April, the official Xinhua News Agency said,
quoting Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the National Copyright
Administration.

The measures are among several new initiatives announced as
China comes under renewed pressure from the US and other trading
partners to curb rampant theft of copyright, trademarks and other
intellectual property.

Internet service providers whose portals are used to spread
pirated information will not be held accountable, Yan said.

"The websites providing pirated information should bear major
responsibility, and the ISPs who are passively spreading the
information will be exempted from punishment," Yan was quoted as
telling a conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

While promising better enforcement of its anti-piracy laws,
China was also cracking down on unauthorised websites, the report
said.

China had more than 600,000 websites by the end of 2004, but
only 8000 were legally registered, it said, citing statistics from
Ministry of Information Industry.